The Minors are the Big Turn Off for many potential Tarot de Marseille readers; but, we think the Minors will be a Turn On, once you see the different ways of interpreting the Minor Arcana that offer far more possibilities than the cartoon scenes of the Rider-Waite Tarot and its clones, or the psychedelic hodgepodge of the Crowley Thoth Tarot Minors.

But, how does one interpret, for example, six simple Coins lined up on a card, or five Cups arranged in proximity, or two Swords joined at either end?

Let us first say, if you were hoping for Golden Dawn meanings, you won’t find them here, except perhaps by pure accident. Although one could certainly impose Golden Dawn meanings over the Tarot de Marseille, this would be like using Gruyère cheese to make Nachos: The two are incongruous and, in the case of the Tarot, anachronistic.

Admittedly, it is possible that one could also “imagine” the Rider-Waite images or Thoth deck images when one gazes at an apparently barren scene of Marseilles Tarot “pip” card (“pip” cards are the Minors that contain the prescribed number of suit symbols for reach number, but without cartoons).

But, why not simply use the Rider-Waite deck? As way of analogy, one would be cheating, making love with one’s spouse but imagining another lover! We must stop such infidelity and make love to the lover we have!

So, we wholly recommend encountering the Tarot de Marseille Minors as they are, not as one may wish them to be. As we will see, this is no compromise, it is not “settling”; rather, it embraces the potency of the Marseilles Tarot. We recommend 3 possible ways of interpreting the Minor Arcana in the Marseilles Tarot.